Starvation (Sigcomm 22)

Main Problem

• The paper identified a problem with a design pattern used by most delay-bounding congestion control algorithms (CCAs). It proves that all delay-convergent CCAs are susceptible to starvation and characterizes the conditions under which the starvation is inevitable.

Insight

• The main insight is that non-congestive delay can lead to starvation. The fundamental issue is that very different link rates are consistent with similar delay measurements. When different flows experience different non-congestive delays, they can infer very different link rates, causing unfairness and even starvation.

Key strength

• It provides solid theorem proof for showing the inevitability of starvation for delay-convergent CCAs.

• It also show that starvation is not merely theoretical, but can be observed in real-world delay-convergent CCAs even in simple settings. It extensively studies Vegas, FAST, Copa, PCC Vivace, and other loss-based CCAs.

Key weakness

Comments / Questions

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